Boris’s Covid policy is finally starting to make some sense

Boris Johnson probably thought he emerged from Prime Minister’s Questions this week having maximised his freedom of manoeuvre in the battle against coronavirus. Indeed, at one point he made it explicitly clear that he was not promising that there would be no second national lockdown, declaring: ‘I rule out nothing.’

While that may be the formal position, the politics of the issue now make it much less likely that the Prime Minister will go down this track. That should be a cause for optimism among all of us who believe further nationwide lockdowns will do immense economic harm while securing little if any lasting public health advantages.

The Prime Minister is now less likely to go for another nationwide lockdown, or ‘circuit-breaker’ as it is has been jazzily rebadged, for several reasons. Partly it is because doing so would make him look slow and stupid. Having already called for such a measure, Keir Starmer would be home and hosed and preening like a thoroughbred in the winner’s enclosure by the time Johnson came limping in to be unsaddled and possibly redirected to the nearest glue factory.